The Warren

Google Watership Down, and you get reviews of both the book by Richard Adams, and the film and animated series based upon it. A story of rabbits. It's slightly more than that, it is a story about anthropomorphised rabbits, and their mythic journey to a new home. A story of liberation and self-determination that strikes a chord with many diverse readers.

Google Watership Down Trauma, and you'll get another story. My story. Children who were taken to the cinema to watch a cartoon about bunnies (rated U for universal), who were subjected to a tale of death and horror. Rabbits are choked by snares, get into bloody battles, and are snatched by predators. This film was released in cinemas when I was 3, so that was the age I watched it. It is one of my earliest memories. It scarred me. That it was partly based on the author's experience with Operation Market Garden gives us an idea of what we're working with here.

Why am I talking about this on a gaming blog? Well, due to my recent purchase of The Warren, by Marshall Miller, released by Bully Pulpit games. This is a Powered by the Apocalypse game where you play a troop of rabbits in the style of Watership Down, or Peter Rabbit. For those paying attention, those are NOT the same genre, but the game can accommodate both styles.

The Warren is not the first game to be based on Watership Down of course, there is the classic 1972 (the same year the book was released) game Bunnies and Burrows, and the GURPS supplement based on the same.

On reading through the The Warren, I thought it might help my childhood trauma to play through the game, and maybe even watch Watership down again. This time knowing what I'm getting myself into, with an eye to working through some residual issues I may have. 

Games can be therapeutic that way, or so I hear.